This is not a newsflash, but at the Robobusiness conference in Boston last week, companies showed off everything from a robot firefighter to a mechanical gardener, receptionist, tour guide and security guard. What we may sometimes forget is that an incredibly sophisticated robot can be just a computer hooked up to a pretty simple device.

The author points out so many things robots can do now that when you put them all in a list, it's darned impressive: Robots can on their own "pick up and peel bananas, land jumbo jets, steer cars through city traffic, search human DNA for cancer genes, play soccer or the violin, find earthquake victims or explore craters on Mars."

Our own 10-part series, Robot Madness, which ended earlier this month delved into the meaning of all this.

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